Immigration Reform

Fixing America’s Illegal Immigration Crisis

America’s immigration policy is broken and has been for far too long. It is unfair to our citizens, unsafe for our security, and provides no clear path to citizenship for those who wish to come here legally. That can change.

It is shaping to be one of the most pressing issues in the 2024 presidential campaign between incumbent Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump. Who will be perceived to do a better job controlling the US-Mexico border and reforming a very broken immigration system may very well determine who the next President of the United States is on January 20th, 2025.  How with United States senators respond?

An NBC News poll recently found that Americans currently prefer Donald J Trump, the former 45th President, to Joseph R. Biden, the current 46th President, on border and immigration issues, 57 percent to 22 percent. On the other hand, Republican members of the United States Senate and U.S. House of Representatives just inartfully killed a serious bipartisan effort to fix at least a good part of what is causing the current border crisis. The start of a fix anyway.

Trump campaigned in 2016 and again in 2020 that he would fix America’s crisis at the Mexico border. Trump said just recently that he alone can resolve the immigration crisis once he is elected in 2024 and browbeat Republican legislators to kill the immigration fix. This legislative initiative appears to have been among the strongest in recent memory.

The critical electoral college battleground states of California, Texas, Florida, and New York have between them some 500,000 up to two million illegals each. Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington have more than a fair amount themselves, proving what a national problem illegal immigration is in the United States.

With both major party candidates being so unpopular with the American public overall and the existence of three non-major party candidates running as well, political independents will undeniably be critical to a winning election formula in 2024.

The Issue in Context

There are a lot of hallow political promises and facts circulating our political landscape complicating any potential fix to the illegal immigration crisis, such as:

• The Mexico-US border covers 1,951 miles and is not as minor a task as has been represented by Republicans and Democrats.

• Credible estimates place the costs of building a viable barrier wall along that 1,951-mile border at $60 billion, not the original estimate of $10 billion to $15 billion.

• President Trump can be credited with 400 miles of construction, some 20% of the needed territory, but only 16 of those miles were where there was no existing fencing already during his administration.

• Costs incurred for those 400 Trump-credited miles are $15 billion.

• Only 170 miles of Trump’s wall construction/reconstruction were built where only vehicle barriers existed previously.

• A wall was built to replace older barriers covering 135 miles.

• Fifty miles of wall were built parallel to existing barriers.

• Trump did not make Mexico pay for the wall as promised during his 2016 campaign.

• Illegal immigration was roughly the same when Trump left office in January 2021 as it was when he entered office in January 2017.

• Legal immigration dropped dramatically during the Trump years.

• Removal and mass deportations of illegal immigrants in the US during the Trump years were the lowest recorded since ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was created in 2003.

• Using immigration-related executive actions as a benchmark, Donald Trump issued 472 during his four years in office, while Joe Biden has issued 535 in the three years he has been in office.

• Legal immigration has returned to pre-pandemic levels under President Biden. Still, illegal immigration now surpasses 1.7 million encounters in a single year – the highest on record so far, not counting those illegals who escaped detection and entered the country anyway.

• The Biden Administration has granted parole to more than 1 million immigrants.

So, from an independent party and candidate perspective, what should effective, comprehensive immigration reform look like?

First, let’s acknowledge that America was built on the shoulders of immigrants.

Second, recognize that Mexico is one of America’s largest trading partners, recently surpassing both China and Canada in scope.

Third, we must admit that the United States and Florida need immigrant workers to maintain a healthy and vibrant economy.

Fourth, a physical wall alone will not enhance U.S. security on our borders, nor will it ensure a significant reduction in illegal immigration, smuggling, drug-running, weapon exportation, cartel incursions, intelligence failures, interdiction challenges, and a host of other problems.

Any reform legislation must come in a stand-alone bill and be processed through each chamber of Congress, including traditional subcommittee, committee, and floor debate.  Tying immigration reform or control to Ukrainian or Israeli security aid, for example, is not good policy.

The United States has always been a haven for people desperately seeking freedom and safety. But we know that welcoming must also be managed. We need to keep this in mind.

Ideally, the discussion on what immigration reform will include and address should start with the following elements, knowing full well that compromise between the Senate, the House, and the White House will eventually settle on something different than that proposed here:

• The southern U.S. border needs to be immediately closed as ordered by the President of the United States with a formal supporting joint resolution from Congress.

• Any immigrant entering the United States after a date established by Congress and approved by the President must be deemed ineligible for citizenship or entry into the United States in perpetuity.

• Federal officials must prosecute 100% of illegal border crossings.

• Visa overstays will result in a ten-year ban on re-entry to the United States.

• Quicker judicial vetting of immigrants at the border by funding and adding more court officers at strategic ports of entry.

• Catch and stay orders must receive judicial review or be subject to catch and remove orders.

• Congress should fund more U.S. immigration processing centers at physical locations to support Latin American cities in processing immigration applications better before immigrants make their trek to a U.S. border entry point.

• States should be permitted to prevent immigrants from attempting to enter the United States illegally through their National Guard.

• States should remand custody of interdicted illegals to ICE for further processing, which includes immediate deportation following on-site judicial vetting.

• Temporary work permits can be made available by the quicker judicial vetting courts immediately, eliminating the current 90-day waiting period.

• A job bank should be established in which prospective future immigrants might seek work permits to enter the United States legally to perform jobs deemed essential and available.

• Skill-based criteria and available U.S. job needs should determine legal immigration.

• Immigrants entering the United States legally after a date enacted by Congress with support from the President will not be eligible for public benefits until citizenship has been granted.

• A path to citizenship for illegals currently in the country must be made available but not under terms of amnesty.

• Illegal immigrants in the United States must register with ICE and their states of current residency within 90 days of enactment or face immediate deportation as well as ineligibility for citizenship or re-entry into the United States in perpetuity.

• The path to citizenship may only be provided to those who have no criminal or civil infraction records, have failed to pay taxes on income received in the United States for any given year, can speak and write in English as a second language, and have passed the traditional citizenship test.

• The path to citizenship should take a minimum of three years.

• Birthright citizenship should be repealed.

• Sanctuary cities and counties should be prohibited by an act of Congress with the potential forfeit of federal funding if found violating the law.

• Legal immigration should be limited to 250,000 per year.

• Dreamers should be granted full citizenship if documented, eligible under the other criteria above, and before the date specific when illegal immigrants are prohibited the right to citizenship by an act of Congress.

• American businesses must E-Verify the new hire’s citizenship status before paying the new hire or providing any benefits.

• American businesses that violate the E-Verify requirement by knowingly hiring an undocumented immigrant will be subject to business license revocation and penalties.

• Immigrants who have entered the United States illegally and committed a crime must serve time in the United States and then be immediately deported to the country of origin upon time served

• Deported immigrants, other than Visa overstays, will not be eligible for citizenship or re-entry into the United States in perpetuity.

• It shall be a first-degree felony to knowingly transport, conceal deliberately, or induce the transportation of an illegal alien.

• Undocumented immigrants shall not be eligible for public benefits or possessing a driver’s license, license plate, bank account, voter identification, credit card, or debit card.

• Undocumented immigrants shall not be permitted to send payments abroad.

• Non-citizens of the United States should not vote in United States elections.

• Congress should fund greater law enforcement and intelligence operations at America’s northern, southern, eastern, and western borders.

• Border barriers using state-of-the-art technology and surveillance systems should be funded by Congress and constructed and operationalized by the Executive Branch.

This list of “should-dos” is extensive and will require substantial legislative attention and work to achieve. I did tell you this is a comprehensive plan, right?

But given the crisis at our border today and the ongoing threat that crisis presents to American security at home and abroad, and the way it can impact Florida, the work must begin now.

Are you with us, political independents? We can pressure our Democrat and Republican friends to get their collective heads out of the sand and get something real done on an issue that will determine in November whether or not our democracy survives.

The stakes for successful immigration reform are that real and that necessary!